Losing Sight Of What's More Important
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
My dear encountered couples:
This Gospel story shows how far off base we can get when we lose sight of what it is that is really important. God became God of the Jews to protect them and lead them to eternal happiness. God wanted to show special love to each and every Jewish person so that eventually everybody in the world would realize his love for all people. There was no one that God’s heart left out. He made people first in importance no matter how busy his schedule was. And through the prophets he tried to teach the people to care for one another as God cared for them.
As time went on the importance of the individual seems to have become overlooked. People were replaced in importance with the importance of man-made laws and the interpretation of God-made laws. Hire somebody to make laws and that’s what they are going to do.
Certain people among the Jews were in charge of the laws and they seem to have devoted their lives to making more and more of them. Then they and others saw that those laws were kept to the letter. Laws became more important than people.
This man had been sick for 38 years. Jesus cured him on the Sabbath. Were the authorities happy for the man? Did they praise Jesus? They were furious - for Jesus had cured the man on the day of no work, on the Sabbath. Can we become that way in our country? In our Church? In our homes? In our movement or organization?
God put people first. What is it we do? Sacrifice people for the preservation of laws? Or make laws work for the good of people? We need to stop often and check the answer to those questions with a large dose of common sense.
